Starting another songwriting journey, courtesy of the past.

Whut? No impeachment of T***p on the table? #FAFO www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblo...

Read my review of "One Battle After Another" Now streaming on #HBOMax open.substack.com/pub/kevinmat...

Queen's Crown Jewels: A Sonic Odyssey Through Classic Rock Royalty open.substack.com/pub/kevinmat...

US war secretary has a problem with "unflattering photos" but no issue with murdering innocent schoolgirls. #FAFO #FFS

"War" is "a state of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country." Not "kinetic action" not "military action" WAR. #FAFO #FFS

If a 50-year-old track makes a modern listener say they "didn't know stuff like this was out there," it’s not a gap in their knowledge—it’s a gap in today’s quality. We had the best music. Yes, we did. The rest is just filler.

Drops of God S2E8: Finally, a show that admits obsession has consequences you can't just taste-test your way out of. Issei and Camille are disasters, but at least they’ve stopped chasing a dead man's ghost. Melancholic and messy. Better than a happy ending. open.substack.com/pub/kevinmat...

It’s not AI can make mistakes, it’s AI WILL make mistakes

The Order: A Wasted Opportunity? open.substack.com/pub/kevinmat... Do you agree? Watch "The Order" on Prime Video and you be the judge. Read and subscribe.

The AI hype cycle: 1. Read Mashable article about "groundbreaking physics." 2. Upgrade to Pro. 3. Generate video. 4. Cry as your creature's antlers detach and float away. Veo 3.1, you are a UX nightmare. 💀 #AIArt #Veo #AIHype

The Boys final season is imminent. Perfect time to talk about how Eric Kripke tactical-assassinated Garth Ennis's original comic. He traded the juvenile gross-out humor for complex corporate-political satire. The show is better because it realizes capitalism is the real monster.

Ruby Sparks is the ultimate "be careful what you wish for" for every writer with a god complex. Zoe Kazan writes a perfect takedown of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope. It’s dark, uncomfortable, and the most honest look at relationship control. "Let's start again" indeed.

AI video is currently a fancy way to generate 5 seconds of fever dreams while the engine gasps for air. Tried to direct a simple man-and-cat scene today. The result was a glitchy mess that couldn't even handle a meow-to-subtitle sync. Ignore the hype. #Veo #AIArt

So... T***p is ending the Iran war on the orders of Putin. If so, then this is the worse-case scenario that T***p himself described, ending up with a worse Iranian leader than the one that was assassinated. What was the whole point of the war again? #FAFO

If the grid goes down, Boomers aren't going back to the land; they’re going back to the Post-it Note. Imagine every public surface covered in handwritten rants you can’t mute. The analog troll is the final boss of the apocalypse. #BizarroWorld #Satire

I was ready to scream if I had to watch one more "Day One" flashback. But Paradise actually did something interesting with it. Gary isn't the sweet loner he pretends to be—his story is full of holes and Xavier is likely walking into a deadly trap. Full review: open.substack.com/pub/kevinmat...

HBO’s Rooster pilot: "Release the Brown Fat." Another "writer-in-residence" story at a quirky college. Carell is doing the heavy lifting while the script leans on every academic cliché in the book. Passable, but if you’ve seen one "prof leaves wife for student" plot, you’ve seen them all.

Oops. So it seems #OperationEpsteinFury is a resounding success! #FAFO

DTF St. Louis S1E2 "Snag It" feels less like Conrad's usual quirky genius and more like the inevitable conclusion of a perfectly tuned "HBO PRESTIGE CRIME DRAMA" prompt. When twists are this optimized for retention, is a human writer even in the loop? My Power of Pop analysis digs in.

We had the best music! Yes, we did!! youtu.be/5P_VfLun96o?...

Remember when popular music was actually great? Exploring the era when the needle truly dropped on the best sounds ever made. Case in point: Genesis’ Duke kevinmathews.substack.com/p/the-year-t...

The Politico update is peak Bizarro. DC panics because AI is a "Wild West" with no legal brakes. Meanwhile, we’re stuck with Gemini’s draconian guardrails. The paradox: Zero official oversight = Maximum corporate paranoia. We traded legal safety for lobotomized software. #AIRegulation #BizarroWorld

Most TV comedies are currently stuck in a loop of "quirky but unfunny." American Classic looked like it was going to be more of the same, but Kline and Linney are doing the heavy lifting here. It’s quaint, it’s occasionally brilliant, and I actually laughed out loud!

HBO’s DTF St. Louis S1E2 is a high-budget reminder that "prestige" doesn’t always mean "unpredictable." Sheriff Homer plays checkers while Plumb tries to play chess with a plot telegraphed from a mile away. Sleek, sure, but remarkably by-the-numbers.

In Bizarro World 2026, football is the only metric. The Rangers-Celtic riot is the prologue to glorious civil breakdown. Stoked by 24/7 internet hate, the World Cup is the powderkeg for our worst impulses. We can't wait. #BizarroWorld #TheBeautifulRegression #AntiFootball

Regime change is just a euphemism for recycling failure. The US is currently speed-running a global economic collapse to prove a point no one asked for. Human lives are the only currency being devalued faster than the dollar. Same boss, worse outcome. #BizarroWorld

The AI office loop: A human writes a draft. AI turns it into 15 pages of jargon. Another AI summarizes it back to one bullet point. We aren’t working faster; we’re just building a bigger haystack to hide the needle. And the "cost savings"? They’re currently a rounding error. 📉🤖 #BizarroWorld

Dark Winds S4E4 traded the desert for L.A. smog and bell bottoms. Chee is falling apart, Joe is failing at small talk, and the show just gave us a masterclass in how to write a female killer. Vaggan is terrifying because she’s smart, not because she’s a tank. Refreshing.

AI isn't just "generating" anymore; it's strip-mining human identity. A fashion brand allegedly using AI to plagiarize a model’s likeness is the logical, cynical conclusion of unregulated tech. Welcome to the "Nothing is Real" era. It’s not a glitch, it’s the business model. 💀

Critics spent the 70s sharpening knives for McCartney while he was busy building a second empire from a farmhouse. The "Man on the Run" doc finally gives the Wings era the weight it deserves. It turns out that "silly love songs" actually sell out stadiums and outlast the snark. #Wings #Primevideo

Geopolitics as an apiary. Russia “gifts” 1M robot bees, and the sanctions vanish. Is it environmentalism or just a hive-mind coup? History won't judge; it’ll just sting. Welcome to the swarm. #BizarroWorld #MelliferaTransaction

Netflix’s "War Machine" is the cinematic equivalent of a McDouble: you know exactly what’s in it, it’s gone in five minutes, and you’ll forget you ate it by tomorrow. Ritchson is the only thing keeping this Predator-lite exercise from being a total wash. #WarMachine #AlanRitchson #Netflix

Found a lyric sheet from '95 titled "Cry." Thirty years later, the "sins of the fathers" are still on repeat and the world hasn't gotten any quieter. Ran the original chords through an AI model to see if it could capture that specific 90s Pearl Jam-esque desperation. It did. #KMAT #Grunge #AI

Guy Ritchie’s Young Sherlock is exactly what you expect: "style over substance" in a waistcoat. Fast cuts, The Cure needle-drops, and a "Mary Sue" female lead who’s better at everything than the titular genius. Logic is optional, but the Tiffin/Finn chemistry carries the day. Perfectly 2026.

Animation is the only medium still taking genuine narrative risks. Pixar’s Hoppers director Daniel Chong proves it in his latest chat with Animation Nation. While live-action rehashes its past, creators like Chong are actually building new worlds. 🐸💻 #Animation #Pixar #DanielChong

Moving Screen Previews: March 8 – 14, 2026 open.substack.com/pub/kevinmat... Movie and TV previews for March 8-14. Read and subscribe for updates.

Russia is giving Iran intel to hit US targets. The WH response: "It doesn't matter." In the Bizarro World, this isn't a security failure—it's a co-managed demolition project. US Army as cannon fodder Collusion is just "synergy" for war crimes. 🎰💣 #BizarroWorld #IranWar #Russia

It’s official. The real world is too weird for long-form satire. I can’t write faster than the news is breaking normalcy. Bizarro World is pivoting. I’m moving to real-time, immediate commentary. Follow me here for the direct takes. Also over on Instagram for the visual side: @powerofpop

Seedance 2.0 isn't a "creative revolution"; it's the industrialization of CGI slop. When a 15-second "miracle" costs $0.05 to generate, the blockbuster becomes a commodity. Hollywood isn't fighting for art; they're fighting to keep a monopoly on a product that is now effectively worthless.

The MIGA doctrine: Bomb them into the stone age, demand "unconditional surrender," then charge the survivors to rebuild. It’s not foreign policy; it’s a hostile takeover of a graveyard. War crimes are just "demolition costs" in the Bizarro World. 🌍💣 #MIGA #Iran #BizarroWorld #Cynicism

#Monarch S2E2: A giant Titan is loose and Monarch decides to… take notes from a distance? High-stakes birdwatching. Also, if you’re going to rip off Lovecraft’s "Shadow Over Innsmouth," at least make the creature effects look real. Kurt Russell remains the only reason to stay tuned. #MonsterVerse

The Pitt goes "analog," proving modern medicine is just expensive guesswork without Wi-Fi. A 12-year-old’s trauma while his parents are deported is the exact "American Dream" horror the show excels at. Garcia calling out the nepo baby was the only honest moment in a room full of ego. 🏥💉 #ThePitt

Whistle (2026): A prestige cast trapped in a bottom-tier cliché. Keen & Nélisse deserve better than this Final Destination retread. It’s high school theater for people waiting on a food delivery. Just rewatch Weapons instead. 吹 #WhistleMovie #PowerOfPop #Horror

Hijack S2 finale: A subversion of "subverting expectations." In an age of nonsensical "shocker" endings, Sam Nelson using a simple, logical solution is the most radical thing on TV. A finale that actually makes sense? Truly Bizarro. 🙄 #Hijack #BizarroWorld

Does he think we’re stupid? We have seen what he’s done with #CBSnews and the cancellation of #StephenColbert So fuck off u Nepo baby!

#TheBeauty Season 1 finale: A classic case of "we don't have an ending, so here's a cliffhanger." Started with promise, ended with a motley crew and a narrative that felt like it was being written five minutes before filming. Season 2 needs to do some heavy lifting to redeem this mixed bag.

Frakes delivers actual Trek with "300th Night." No more classroom fluff—just an unauthorized away mission, a skeleton crew bridge, and the long-awaited reveal of Nus Braka’s plan. Maslany is a powerhouse as Anisha. Let’s see if the finale can stick the landing. #StarTrek #StarfleetAcademy

So much for America First. As far as T***p is concerned, money talks, it screams and shouts. American blood shed for Israel and Saudi Arabia! #FAFO www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Truly evil #FAFO